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■ Nikolai Alekseev

MOSCOW, June 9, 2007 (GayRussia.ru)
– The main organiser of Moscow Gay Pride was today found guilty of
disobeying police officers while breaching traffic rules on May 27 as he and
other activists, including European parliamentarians tried to deliver a
petition to Moscow City Hall signed by around 50 Members of the European
Parliament.

Nikolai Alekseev was fined 1,000
roubles (£20, €29, $39), the same as co-organiser and leader of the “Russian
Radicals” movement Nikolai Khramov when he was found guilty yesterday in the
same court.

After the hearing, Mr. Alekseev
vowed that he would not pay the fine and would be launching an appeal to the
Moscow Tverskoy District Court.

“The court session looked like a
farce,” he said. “The judge refused to admit photo and video evidence
proving that we had not disturbed law and order.”

He said he considered his
detention, during the May 27 action in support of the rights of sex
minorities, was illegal. Mr. Alekseev – along with Mr. Khramov and another
Gay Pride organiser – was kept in police custody for 24 hours before being
brought to court where he was released.

On May 28 the judge considered
witness evidence by European politicians. But this was not taken into
account in today’s hearing.

Two police officers testified in
court on the circumstances of Mr. Alekseev’s detention.

However, Mr. Alekseev claimed that
“none of the officers were, in fact, involved in my detention, which, he
pointed out, can be proven with photographic evidence”.

Mr. Alekseev and his lawyer
Alexander Ostrovskiy left the courtroom after four hours of court hearing in
protest against the way the case was being tried.

All others observing the proceeding
also left the court room, leaving the judge and one of the policemen alone.

The decision was delivered shortly
afterwards, without Mr. Alekseev and his lawyer. It was announced to the
media by the court.

“I am ready to go up to the
European Court of Human Rights if necessary, to prove that I am innocent and
that all the charges against me were fabricated,” Mr. Alekseev said outside
the court.

It emerged today that Mr. Khramov
will also be appealing his conviction.

The case against Sergei
Konstantinov, the third person
detained for 24 hours on May 27, was postponed and will now be heard by the
same judge on June 22.

His case was postponed cause one of the police
officers, who also gave evidence in the case of Mr.
Alekseev, refused to confirm seeing Mr. Konstantinov at the
event. Also the second police officer said that he “felt
bad” and could not give evidence.

■ Moscow Gay Pride March ban, imposed
by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, is also being appealed to Tverskoi District
court and should be considered shortly.

In January this year Moscow Pride
organisers lodged a complaint against Russia with the European Court of
Human Rights for the ban of the 2006 gay pride march in Russia’s capital.

■ 1,000 roubles equates to about the equivalent of a
day's salary of the average Moscow worker.

Moscow Gay
Pride: Tatchell’s Assailant Not Arrested,
Say Police. Moscow police confirm that they have opened a
criminal investigation into the assault on British gay human rights
campaigner, Peter Tatchell, at last Sunday's Moscow Gay Pride event.
But official police claims that they have arrested the right-wing extremist
who punched Mr Tatchell in the face are untrue, according to the
investigating officer.
(UK Gay News, June 1)

Moscow Gay
Pride Organiser Khramov Found Guilty. One of the three
organisers of Moscow Pride has escaped a jail sentence and was fined when
found guilty this afternoon in a Moscow court which threw-out evidence,
given at a previous hearing by a number of MPs from Europe, as “frivolous”.
(UK Gay News, June 8)

Beach, or Beaten in Moscow?
Commentary by Sara Whitman. I sat at the beach today, and
wondered how many people thought Allan and I, with Zachary in tow, thought
we were heterosexual. Okay, Allan in his tiny Speedo and me in my giant one
piece Speedo and, of course, gym shorts, were not exactly looking incredibly
straight but the image was enough to bother me. I had read this
morning that over thirty gay activists had been arrested in Moscow.
(UK Gay News, May 28)

Date For
Next Year's Moscow Gay Pride Announced Tonight - May 31,
2008. Within hours of being released by a Moscow Court after being arrested at
yesterday’s “gay Pride” and kept in police custody overnight, Nikolai
Alekseev had met with others on the Moscow Gay Pride Committee to discuss
the future. (UK Gay News, May 28)

London Mayor
Appeals to Moscow For End of Gay Pride Ban. Following yesterday’ violence
against lesbian and gay rights demonstrators in Moscow – and the arrest of
several of the demonstrators – the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has this
morning written to his Moscow counterpart Mayor Luzhkov urging that no
charges be brought against those who were demonstrating for lesbian and gay
rights. (UK Gay News, May 28)

Peter
Tatchell Speaks About His Experience of Gay Pride, the Assault and His
Arrest. Arrests and violent attacks marred today’s
attempted Moscow Gay Pride march. Fifteen to 20 marchers were arrested.
The organiser of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev, is being detained overnight
at Moscow’s Tverskoi district police station, together with two prominent
members of Russia’s Radical and Free Radical parties, Nikolai Khramov and
Sergei Konstantinov. British gay human rights campaigner
Peter Tatchell was one of several Gay Pride marchers who were beaten today
by gangs of neo-Nazis, nationalist extremists and Russian Orthodox
fundamentalists. (UK Gay News, May 27)

Arrested Gay Pride Activist Asks World for Help. From inside
the Tverskoye police station, where he is being detained, Nikolai Alekseev –
one of the Moscow Gay Pride organisers and its spokesperson – has issued a
statement asking for international support and for the immediate release of
all the gays activists currently being held.
(UK Gay News, May 27)

Moscow Gay Pride:
Dispatches from the Front. There was trouble in Moscow today when participants at Gay Pride,, led by a
number of European politicians, tried to deliver a letter of protest to
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov at City Hall. Violence flared as they faced groups
of neo-Facist thugs, religious groups, aggressive police and the OMON.
This is a "record" of the dispatches received by UK Gay News from many
sources. (UK Gay News, May 27)

Tatchell at Moscow Gay Pride: We
Are In This Fight Together. Greetings! I bring you a
message of comradeship and solidarity from the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex [LGBTI] human rights organizations OutRage! in
London. Your struggle is our struggle. This is the full text of
Peter Tatchell's keynote speech to the Moscow Gay Pride Conference yesterday
.
(UK Gay News, May 27)